Help!!! Dog and kitty trouble.

[Aine of the Fae]

Ok, I have a problem. I have two German Shepherds who have enjoyed the outdoors and staying in their kennel/barn for most of the summer. However one is so high strung that he paces all the time when he's outside so he's starting losing weight. Bring him inside and he's fine, weight comes back, he's calm and happy. So we've decided to bring them in on a permanent basis.

Here's the problem. We recently found a stray kitten and decided to keep her. However she did NOT react well when we tried to introduce her to the dogs today! My female shepherd is terrified of her (big dog hiding from tiny kitty is hilarious!!!) However the male shepherd would have no qualms about eating said tiny kitty if it seemed threatening. Which, as you can imagine, ten kitty claws and teeth can be pretty threatening.

Are there any suggestions for helping the cat to learn to at least ignore the dogs? As long as the cat would mind her own business the dogs would be fine with her, but she is being not just defensive, but aggressive as well. Not smart when the dogs weigh 60 to 70 times more than she does!!!!

If we can't make this work out, we're going to have no choice but to find another home for the cat. Sorry, but the dogs are my babies :(

[LadyTrinity]

maybe let the kitten roam around and eventually it will get used to the dog... its still a kitten.. lucky u lol.. an adult cat u may not be so lucky.. we did this with 2 kittens and a lab dog and they hated the dog then after 6 months started playing the her tail :lol:

[Gebo]

Don't give up too quickly. Kittens are very curious and don't realize they aren't supposed to approach something that large to ask for a play date. Dogs have a wonderful alarm system-they growl. The growl is the warning "you are in my space" Please never scold a growl. A growl is good. unfortunately, kitty may have to get nipped once. After the kitty learns its boundaries and acceptable behavior outside the litter/street then it will start to mind its own business. I would give it a minimum of two weeks before any real change is noticed. I know :goodgrief , it's likely to get crazy a few times, but hierarchy is a trait of all living things-even curious kitties and annoyed shepherds. Good luck.

[zakzekezedd]

Ah well, the best advice I can offer is to make sure that you have a "secure" place for kitten when you aren't there to supervise. Most cats will calm down and accept a new animal in the house with a little time and patience. As long as kitten has some place to retreat to where the dogs can't follow everything should work out ok. My older cats have been around a dog before, so they weren't all that impressed with Oona (my new dog)..a bit of a sniff, a hiss, and retreat to another room. The babies though have never seen a dog--Samwise and Frodo have taken great exception, complete with growls, yowls, hisses and sitting in the bedroom glaring and complaining about the whole business. Olivia suprisingly after a few sniffs and a couple of pokes has decided that for the most part the dog is beneath her notice, unless there's some sport to be had by cornering the dog in the kitchen and not letting her back in the living room (Peanut taught her that one..). So be patient, but be vigilante and just give them all a chance to get used to each other..

[Aine of the Fae]

:lol: It's actually the cat that's new. I've had my male shepherd since he was 6 weeks old and my female since she was born!

[OriginalWacky]

Here's the problem. We recently found a stray kitten and decided to keep her. However she did NOT react well when we tried to introduce her to the dogs today! My female shepherd is terrified of her (big dog hiding from tiny kitty is hilarious!!!) However the male shepherd would have no qualms about eating said tiny kitty if it seemed threatening. Which, as you can imagine, ten kitty claws and teeth can be pretty threatening.

Are there any suggestions for helping the cat to learn to at least ignore the dogs? As long as the cat would mind her own business the dogs would be fine with her, but she is being not just defensive, but aggressive as well. Not smart when the dogs weigh 60 to 70 times more than she does!!!!

If we can't make this work out, we're going to have no choice but to find another home for the cat. Sorry, but the dogs are my babies :(
I'm going to assume that your dogs are very well-trained, and offer suggestions with that in mind.

First of all, you will probably have to go about this slowly, and you will need to keep kitty someplace else when you aren't there to watch. I would start by having a dogs in a room, and allowing the kitty to approach in her own time. If she gets a chance to watch those huge terrifying 'things' from a distance, she might be more inclined to get closer and find out that these huge 'things' aren't so bad after all.

Talk to all of them about how they are siblings, or friends (all my critters are siblings because they are my babies!), and keep calm all of the time. Try feeding the kitten when the dogs are across the room, all the time, so that she could possibly associate the dogs with food, which is good.

Although some folks might say just let them figure out the balance, the problem with that is the kitten could be seriously hurt by what is a small nip for the dog. And of course, those sharp little claws can do damage to a dog as well.

Keep the sessions of introduction short and pleasant. Make it a major time of praise and treats for both. The rest of the time, keep the kitty in a safe room, where the dogs aren't allowed to follow. In fact, you might be well off to actually close kitty in when you aren't having a session with all of them.

Make sure when you pet the dogs, you then go pet the cat without washing, so that kitty gets a whiff of the dog scent. And vice versa, so the dogs get used to her smell as well.

It can often take up to a month to progress to where they will have some sort of truce and can be in the same room without a hassle. Don't give up too early, with patience, love, and lots of treats, you should be able to keep all of them without problem. You can also do a search online for introducing dogs to cats and find lots of good info.

[Aine of the Fae]

The dogs are kenneled outside and so it gives the kitten a chance to be away. But we're working on bringing the dogs in permanently and tearing down the kennel to build a new one.

I brought the dogs in today for a couple of hours. My female shepherd hides from the cat, she's terrified of it. The male on the other hand...

I held the kitten, carefully, with it's paws in my hands so she couldn't scratch, and my male dog went into a sit and just sat there patiently waiting... as if he thought the kitten was his treat for being so good....

Those two are going to be my problem. If the kitten will get over her growling and hissing, the male shepherd might learn to ignore her. However the kitten is defensive, which comes across as aggressive. And so the dog becomes defensive, which comes across as aggressive. And a 120 lb shepherd could eat the kitten in one gulp...

We'll get there... It's just going to take time....

[MzNeko]

OriginalWacky mentioned scent... maybe you could get a shirt/old rag/towel and let the dogs sleep with/on it for a few days, then put the kitten on it while feeding and petting her. You know, get her to associate their scent with positive things.

Might take a little while, though.

[Aleannah]

I have a 16 year old kitty who is declawed in the front, and she has our two dogs to where they are afraid of her. She weighs 5-6 pounds and they weigh 40-50 pounds. Go figure...anyway, give it time, and they will work it out betweeen them.

[Llewyth]

It`ll be fine!